Nail enamel compositions include a class of nail care products regularly used by women as part of their beauty care routine. These nail care products are available in a multitude of product formulations, from clears to infinite colors. Typically, clear nail enamel compositions include a primary film forming polymer, a secondary film forming resin, a plasticizer and one or more solvents. In the case of a color nail enamel composition, the product will also include a thixotropic compound as a suspending agent and one or more pigments, or in the alternative, an organic coloring polymer may be used. In addition to these components, a number of optional and proprietary components are often included such as UV light absorbers, moisturizers, stabilizers, fragrances and the like.
Despite the diverse formulation differences between known nail enamel compositions, the desirable performance expectations are frequently the same, for example, smooth application, rapid dry time, scratch and mar resistance, detergent and oil resistance, lustrous appearance and, often most importantly, wear and peel resistance. Of these expectations, rapid dry time has been considered particularly important to the user when applying nail enamel compositions. To this end, there are known a number of nail enamel compositions which claim to promote rapid dry times as a result of the use of specific components in the nail enamel composition.
By way of example, Pappas, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,011, discloses a nail enamel composition claimed to possess the property of rapid dry times by including acetone as a low boiling solvent. In Martin, U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,891, an acetone free nail enamel composition having rapid dry times is disclosed based upon the inclusion of a mixture of aliphatic and cycloaliphatic solvents. The nail enamel composition is suitable for use as a colorless base coat which prevents solvents being trapped between the base coat and an applied pigmented color coat of conventional composition. Martin also discloses the use of a smoothing agent to reduce friction to improve the flow of the nail enamel composition during application, resulting in improved levelness and surface gloss of the coating. Suitable smoothing agents include silicone polymers and copolymers, polyamides, polyacrylamides, polycarboxylic acids and mixtures thereof. One such polysiloxane copolymer is identified as a solution of a polyether modified dimethylpolysiloxane copolymer in ethylene glycol monobutyl ether.
In Dell'Aquila, U.S. Pat. No. 5,045,309, there is disclosed a nail enamel composition having rapid dry times based upon the inclusion of an accelerator compound in the nature of a fluorinated and/or chlorinated hydrocarbon. In Graves, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,494, a nail enamel composition having rapid dry times is based upon the use of a vinyl-silicone graft or block copolymer such as a silicone polymer segment and a vinyl polymer segment. In Soyama, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,195, there is disclosed the incorporation of a special silicone resin to provide a nail enamel composition possessing acceptable luster and durability, and rapid dry times. In Reysis, U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,930, there is disclosed a drying accelerator for a nail enamel composition which is a mixture of dimethicone and cyclomethicone which are applied to an underlying wet nail enamel coat. The drying accelerator extracts solvents from the wet nail enamel coat to achieve rapid dry times.
Notwithstanding these known nail enamel compositions, there is still the need for further improvements in nail enamel compositions which possess rapid dry times while retaining the other desirable performance expectations. Accordingly, the present invention broadly discloses nail enamel compositions having rapid dry times, scratch and mar resistance, detergent and oil resistance, lustrous appearance, wear and peel resistance, as well as being suitable for use in single color coat application.